Detail View: Charting The Nation: Map of ye Marches of Brunston and Newhal & extract of ye Brief of perambulation yr. of [1518] [1 of 1]

0043900

RHP3841

National Archives of Scotland

Map of ye Marches of Brunston and Newhal & extract of ye Brief of perambulation yr. of [1518]

Clerk, John, Sir of Penicuik

Landowner

Forbes, John of Culloden & Newhall (d.1734)

Landowner

1518-1718

This map is a more detailed version of the one in image 00001750, prepared in support of the claims of Sir John Clerk, the first baronet of Penicuik (d. 1722), in his boundary dispute with his neighbours, the Forbes of Newhall. Originally, the dispute was with Sir David Forbes of Newhall, and there are two earlier maps from 1713 in images 00002145 and 0002255. By this time, Sir David Forbes has died, and the Newhall properties have come into the possession of John Forbes, of Culloden, his nephew. The cause of the dispute is the seam of coal '6 foot thick', which runs across both the Newhall-Marfield and the Penicuik-Brunstane properties, and which the map in image 00002145 shows that Sir David had started to mine, in 1713, at which time he had claimed that the march line ran further north-east than Sir John Clerk thought, giving Sir David access to more coal. This map is undated, but notes on it record that the original legal document setting out the march lines, is dated 5 October 1518, 'qch come 5 October 1718 is 200 years since', so this map must be prior to October 1718. In addition, the map in image 00001750, which this one adds to and corrects, is dated April 1717, with notes up to March 1718. This seems to put this map somewhere around April to September 1718. It uses different colours of shading to show the properties of Walstone, Brunstane and Auchencorth, which belonged to Clerk, and Newhall and Marfield, which belonged to the Forbes. However, Sir John seems to have abandoned his original contention that the march line could be detrmined from the 'Coalcleugh or Coalsyke', as that feature is now only labelled 'cleugh', and Sir John is concentrating on a bend in the Monks Burn (Mucksburn) which he calls 'ane litle cruik', claiming that the march line which ends there is the 'wrong marches', the 'Right marches' ending further down the burn, and giving hime more land. The basis of Sir John's claim depends on the reading of a document of 1518, which recorded in meticulous detail the walking of the marches between these two properties, on 7 October of that year. That document is transcribed on this map, in the original Latin, with an additional note in English to the effect that the original officials who laid down the boundary stones, had 'appoint never to be altered'. Sir John Clerk had had other disputes with neighbours as to the ownership of, or access to coal seams (see map on image 00002135)

Manuscript map/plan

48.3 x 36.5cm (1' 7" x 1' 2 3/8")

Paper

Hand coloured

Auchencorth

Brunstane

Harlawmuir

Marfield House

Midlothian

Monks Burn

Newhall

Newhall House

Nine Mile Burn

North Esk

Penicuik

Scotland

Boundary disputes

Mines and mineral resources

Sinclair, John, The Statistical Account of Scotland, v.10,William Creech, Edinburgh, 1792, pp.419-32.

Chambers, Robert, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, updated, (Edinburgh & Glasgow, 1856).

Courtesy of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland

Cropped Tiff

107900004

Map of ye Marches of Brunston and Newhal & extract of ye Brief of perambulation yr. of [1518] [1 of 1]

7072 x 7072

0043900c.tif

00002242

15/02/2001 15:17:00